High everyone. Just wanted thank you for the support I've been getting so far and an even bigger thank you to everyone who left me comment.

I've taken everything you've said into consideration and I hope that this chapter is better than the last.

This is where the story starts to turn to au. So you've been warned.

Enjoy!

My Shepard and the idea of the story belongs to me and everything else belongs to Bioware.

I figured since I had already fixed up the prologue that I should get around to fixing this chapter, but don't worry "Chapter 2: Allies?" is on its way. In the meantime please check out my new story "The Prodigal Son" and remember, the more reviews, favorites, and follows I get on my stories the faster I write.

Tali slowly opened her eyes to the blinding light of the med bay. She looked around to see that she was surrounded by her friends. All of their faces were filled with a mixture of pain, fear and concern. She was confused, what had happened, why was every one standing around her like that, why was she in so much pain?

"Wait?" It was starting to come back to her.

She looked around and realized that he wasn't there.

"Where's Shepard?"

No one looked at her, the silence was answer enough.

"No…"

Garrus looked at her.

"Tali… I'm sorry."

Her eyes went wide.

"No. No…it can't be."

His eyes fell to the floor; he couldn't bear to look at her.

"Tali I'm sorry."

She could feel her sobs begin to rake over her body.

"This…this can't be. He can't…he can't be…Oh god…oh god! SHEPARD!"

Garrus hugged her as hard as he could.

"Tali…I'm so sorry…I'm so sorry."

He couldn't stop his tears from flowing, no one in the room could.

"SHEPARD!"

Shepard.

That name wouldn't stop tormenting him. He tried to remember what it meant but there was just too much noise. Trillions upon trillions of voices speaking all at once, it was deafening. He had enough of it.

"QUIET!" He shouted, and it stopped.

He was amazed, it was so simple, it was almost like he had "controlled" them. He didn't know why but he felt that the word had some special meaning. Wait. He was starting to remember something. I remember a boy, a boy made of blue light and a choice. Then there was…pain. I remember there was a lot of pain. It was starting to come back to him.

I am Shepard. My name is Shepard. He began to remember something else to, Tali. He didn't know what it meant but he knew it was important.

He had to leave this place (where ever this place was) and he had to find her.

"Hello!" he tried to call to the now quiet voices.

"Can anyone tell me where I am, how I can get out?"

"You have made your decision, there is no turning back."

"Hello? Where are you? Why can't I see you?" The voice spoke back to him.

"You cannot see us for there is nothing to see, though we shall attempt to accommodate you in this time of transition."

Just then he saw something appeared before him, a shadowy, oily figure with glowing yellow eyes. For some reason seeing this figure in front of him filled him with fear and anger. He had no idea what this thing was but he already knew that he didn't like it.

"Who are you?"

"We are Harbinger."

Harbinger? He knew that name; and for some reason hearing it made him feel even worse.

"We can see that your memories have not returned to you in full yet. You are confused, disoriented. Such things are to be expected as you begin to adjust to your new role."

"What are you talking about, why is this expected? What role do you mean?"

"We are referring to your new existence as the Reaper collective."

"The Reapers?" and just like that everything came flooding back to him. He was Commander Jonathan Shepard of the SSV Normandy, the first human Specter and savior of the Citadel. He had gone to war with the Reapers and…he had died. In a finale attempt to save as many lives as possible he had given up life to take control of the Reapers.

"I'm…I'm dead."

"No, you are not. Jonathan Shepard is dead, YOU are his memories and his personality connected to all the minds of all the harvested civilizations, connected to all Reapers. YOU are not him."

He couldn't believe it.

"No…no I am Jonathan Shepard. I remember…I remember the Catalyst said that I would lose everything I was if I did this but yet I'm still…me. I'm Shepard!"

"No, what the Catalyst said is true, but once again we had underestimated you. We believed that this process would have destroyed your individuality as soon as you connected with the Reapers, but yet you cling to the past, a futile effort. As I have already stated, you are not Shepard, you are his thought and his memories."

"No! I know I am Shepard. My body may be gone but that doesn't mean I'm dead."

Harbinger had begun to fade away. "I see that you will not accept the truth for what it is, so be it. You will come to understand us in time."

Shepard was left alone again, he didn't care what that murderous machine thought of him. Right now the galaxy was still in need of his help. He would have the Reapers fix what they had destroyed and then he would use their knowledge to find a way to return himself to normal.

"Just wait a little bit longer Tali, I'm coming home."

Hackett sat there looking towards the ocean. It had only been a week and the arguing had already begun. This thrown together group of all the species leaders and high ranking officers were fighting over every insignificant topic they could think of. Should the Council now allow more species to have seats on the Council, would the Geth and Quarian's be represented together or separately, was opening the Citadel more important or was fixing the relays?

He hadn't said anything; he just wasn't in the mood to deal with politics, not since he had seen Hanna's face when he had told her that her son was being officially declared KIA. All of the joy and the celebrations that had stated since the Reapers had retreated stopped when word broke out. The savior of the galaxy was dead. No one was in a good mood after hearing that.

"What do you think about that Admiral?" a voice snapped him out of his thoughts; it was the Turian Primarch, Victus.

"I'm sorry, I was somewhere else. What were we talking about?"

"I was just saying…" it was the Krogan, Wrex. "That instead of wasting resources hunting down the Reapers, we should try and secure this position first, since we are the only defense that the civilian camp has."

"Yes, that sounds like a good idea. I think that we should have more guards stationed up around the outer perimeter just in case of…" just then they heard people yelling and running outside.

"Looks like were too late." The Asari official said.

Hackett jumped out of his seat and ran for the nearest soldier.

"Private, report." He spoke with a confidence forged from decades of service; he wouldn't let his fear show now, but he was terrified. They were in no condition for a fight let alone a full on Reaper assault.

"Scouts say a group of sixty husks and ten brutes were seen about twenty klicks south Sir!"

Small, but it could still be a problem.

"Has there been any sign of movement?"

"They seem to be headed in this direction Sir! E.T.A. is four hours!" the boy was afraid, he had every reason to be.

"Go and make sure that the civilian camp guards are prepared and inform them that as soon as I send the word they are to evacuate everyone to safety."

"Yes Sir."

"And another thing."

"Yes Sir?"

"I want to be updated on the situation as things develop. Under stood?"

"Yes Sir."

"Dismissed."

As the boy ran off he could see the panic start to grow in the soldiers around him. They hoped, prayed, that when the crucible had fired and the Reapers had begun to retreat that it signified the end of the war. Everyone was wondering, 'Did the crucible not work? Is the war going to continue? Can we survive if it does?' He didn't have the answers but the one thing Hackett was certain about, was that he and everyone else there were thinking the exact same thing.

This was a bad day.